Album Notes

“Menasché is a writer who has done music for films, and this is a beautiful set of acoustic music that evokes many moods, most of them quiet. Musically, there’s a mix of Latin, jazz and folk that works wonderfully with Menasché’s mastery of the guitar. It’s simple and comforting music in a day when it’s needed.”—John Heidt, Vintage Guitar, December, 2009.

Recording with master engineer and producer Rich Tozzoli (Al Di Meola, Wynton Marsalis), Menasché played a selection of character-rich vintage instruments in an effort to capture the naked guitar in all its harmonic richness, with a minimum of electronic interference. The result inspired the title of this collection: Overtones, an album the celebrates the complex sound of the acoustic guitar.

Though Menasché works in many styles, the acoustic has remained the instrument he turns to express unvarnished emotion. Inspired by artists like Ry Cooder, Tony Rice, John Fahey, Kottke, Michael Hedges, Doyle Dykes, Jorma Kaukonen, Will Ackerman, Bert Jansch and Jimmy Page, Menasché found a voice on the instrument that's both evocative and visual. The acoustic has played a major part in his film scores for such projects as John G. Young's feature Parallel Sons, and James Spione's documentaries American Farm and Our Island Home (Spione's photographs adorn the album's front cover).

For Overtones, Menasché also drew inspiration from other instruments: The electric guitar work of Bill Frissel; the spacious, Miles Davis unhurried rewriting of jazz on In a Silent Way; the voice-like warmth of John Coltrane's saxophone on Ballads; and the sensuality of the work of Antonio Carlos Jobim added shading to the colors on Overtones.